Twitter. I don't get it.

[Villayna]

Twitter. Hey look, I can tell everybody what I'm doing when I'm doing it.

So maybe this is an extention of the mySpace/faceBook fad and since neither of those ever really interested me, it stands to reason I wouldn't be interested in Twitter. But at least I could comprehend why other people would enjoy mySpace and faceBook. I just don't get Twitter at all.

Maybe it's an extension of texting. Which I have enabled on my phone, but rarely use.

Maybe it's an extension of the desire to use a diary. This comes the closest to making sense to me. Ok, what was I doing last year at this time. Can Twitter be used that way? How long is that information stored and accessible?

Maybe I'm just a paranoid old introvert, but why in the world would anyone WANT people to know where they are 24x7?

[Okhu]

So they can stalk them more efficiently.

[Bruuin]

Take off the -ter and you get the kind of people who use it and it should answer all your questions pretty easily. :D

[Nadea]

I don't really get the point of Twitter either. I guess you can post and essentially "text" with people via the website or something? I signed up to check it out...and I still don't really get it. *Shrugs*

Ah well, I do enough addictive things on the internet.

[Medduren]

When it's not being used for 'dear diary: I ate a pancake' and other asinine shenanigans, it's pretty useful to follow stuff you're interested in (I use it to keep up on TOR, for example).

[Taknar]

It's also totted as the ultimate networking tool.

AtmaDev: "I'm heading to the Linux For Dummies Conference in Boston"

The above tells people watching my twitter three simple things in one non-complex sentence. First, I'm a developer. Other developers notice this because I'm going to a Linux conference. Second, I'm looking for help with Linux (perhaps as a new user, etc.). Third, I'm going to be in Boston. People with any knowledge of those three sections (software development, linux, boston) are now able to provide me assistance with those things. In the same way, I can provide travel tips to people who are heading to Toronto, or are interested in Magic: The Gathering, or any number of my other interests.

I don't use it myself, but I can certainly see why people do. It's when people use it as their dear diary that things get out of hand and the tool is seperated from it's true potential. But that happens to anything that gets unleashed on the masses.

[Szordrin]

I've never used Twitter.

But I do use Facebook. It's a networking tool that makes keeping ontop of those who you've met fairly easy. It has landed me an assistant PA position for graduation this semester, kept me updated with what I need to get done at Phantom Regiment (No joke. We're required to have a facebook so that we can all have a similar medium and not deal with email spam boxes), and keep me in touch with friends who have moved away.

I find it useful. *Shrug*

[Xaraphyne]

I dunno how most people use it because I'm not really into the whole Twitter thing, but I guess it is used fairly widely for networking, like Tak said. Personally, me and the one friend I know who use it just do it as a place to store random thoughts or jokes that occur to us. I have it set up to be texted from my cell, which is very convenient when I'm away from a computer and thinking some thoughts I don't want to forget.

[Cabriel]

I like Twitter. I love Facebook. They both crack me up every day.

[Nadea]

I miss when Facebook was a place for serious networking, and not just another Myspace.

I use both, but the quality of Facebook really went down when they opened it up to everyone, and its dissapointing.

[Grayslin]

I see it as just the next step after text messages in the march of technology. Text many people at once with some other extras thrown in.

Not really for me, but I'm not big on text messaging either. If I need to talk to you, I'll just fucking call you. Simpler and faster.

[Taknar]

Removed response to deleted offtopic comments. Thank you for shopping with TNG! - Syl

The reason that twitter really doesn't work the way many people think it should is because of it's spammy nature. Too frequent updates about things that don't really matter. There is a Penny-Arcade comic that really displays this (of course, to an extreme).

[Imara]

When it's not being used for 'dear diary: I ate a pancake'

Medd. I do NOT remember giving you permission to discuss my blog entries here. :P

[Taknar]

I'm on topic-ing!

http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/twitter.png

This is a funny comment that somewhat explains the life-cycle of Twitter.

http://www.penny-arcade.com/images/2008/20080423.jpg

This is the aforementioned extreme example of Twitter gone bad.

[Gorvena]

Heh...CWGabriel is growing a tail...

[Jeedup]

Heh...CWGabriel is growing a tail...

I woke up my cat, and the two sleeping downstairs, with my legendary Laugh o'Doom with that.

[Karkarov]

Whatever happened to social networking based on talking to a person one on one, god forbid face to face, and a hand shake perhaps? I understand what these things are and why people use them but they still dont interest me. Your a company looking to hire someone? Search monster.com not facebook. You need travel tips? Most cities of any note have thier own webpages with that info. Need info in general? God forbid you could always google it or use wikipedia.

[Irontoe]

Need info in general? God forbid you could always google it or use wikipedia.

Your sarcasm is not appreciated, sir. Kindly refrain from posting anything in this thread that could reflect negatively on the behavior of anyone who reads this forum.

[Emmons]

It's only use is to find out where I might see Lily Allen's rack next.

Well, besides the internet on Monday mornings.

[Keraph]

I don't get or use Twitter myself, but when I was at a social business event at Microsoft's new R&D facility near Boston, Twitter and Twitter-related apps came up a LOT, and it seems to be very popular in the industry. Notably, it looks like people are trying to give it more functionality and overall popularity. No clue what that means, just seemed like a popular industry topic.

[Villayna]

This was hilarious.

Celebrity Twitter Overkill (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/09/celebrity-twitter-overkil_n_200872.html)

[Lisbet]

That IS pretty funny.

I dunno, I love the computer and stuff that goes with it, but things like myspace and twitter I just don't understand. I must be getting old.

[Toxaris]

Myspace is so old now... It used to be all about livejournal, then came myspace, and now it's facebook.

I really don't want to give in to the whole twitter thing though... It's evil.

[Okhu]

Its 11 AM now. I'm getting kind of hungry, breathing normally... going to get lu--

Its 11:01 now... still pretty hungry ...might want to get lunch this time.

[Evanthe]

I look at this (http://favrd.textism.com/most) page on occasion. Some of those people are pretty witty.

[Haqin]

Brasil skips steps on online communities. We conquered and raided Orkut until it became unbearable to other people. Few adventured to Myspace (more of a business network around here) and fewer to Facebook. Now the Orkut troops are moving to Twitter and many "old school" users are already calling The end of Twitter, dominated by all useless brazilian spam.
Some articles were published on "Brazilian" magazines/blogs (http://oglobo.globo.com/blogs/cuenca/) and one of them refers to this article (http://www.mcsweeneys.net/2009/3/31kennedy.html) from McSweeney's magazine by Dan Kennedy:

"Twitter seems to be, first and foremost, an online haven where teenagers making drugs can telegraph secret code words to arrange gang fights and orgies. It also functions as a vehicle for teasing peers until they commit suicide. In order to become a "follower" on Twitter, teens first must flash their high-beam headlights at an oncoming motorist on the highway. Then, if that motorist flashes his or her high-beam headlights back in reply, the teen must kill the motorist in order to be initiated into "following" the online gang. The catch is that one can only use 140 sentences to plan a total of 140 events—that is, any combination of orgies, gang fights, suicides, and highway killings totaling 140 planned situations or activities.

Makeup artists working in television and film also like to use Twitter to keep in touch with each other and with current productions.

Twitter is electric/computerized and available at all times, except when sexual misconduct and murder are "over capacity." During these times, teen drug makers see a picture of a dead whale alerting them to bad energy."

[Vaaldis]

To each their own. My friends have twitter, I made one to make them stop complaining. My only 'tweet' or whatever was 'Making a freaking Twitter.' I'll read it when I'm REALLY bored.
My only problem with twitter is that I still use Livejournal, and so do my friends... and they all update their LJ with a twitter feed. MY GOD IT'S ANNOYING.

[Nadea]

I actually know someone who recently went to a "twitter meetup" near where she lives... I think they called it a "Tweetup". I was like "wooooooow...." >.>

[Tiraline]

Your a company looking to hire someone? Search monster.com not facebook.

After the initial interview, I'd sure search Facebook.

If their Facebook page is mostly made up of pictures of them dancing on tables with the proverbial lampshade chapeau, they're not hired.